What Do Japanese Telephones Have to Do With Disco? [Saturday Timewaster]

by 17 Comments

Well, The Telephones are a band, and many of their song titles have something to do with disco, so there’s the answer to your question. But don’t leave yet! There’s so much more entertainment ahead, I promise!

Formed in 2005, the members of The Telephones include: Akira Ishige (石毛輝) on vocals, guitar, and keyboard, Ryohei Nagashima (長島涼平) on bass and chorus, Nobuaki Okamoto (岡本伸明 ) on keyboard and chorus, and Seiji Matsumoto (松本誠治) on drums. And now onto the music!

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29iH4JOgZJI']

I found this band a while back while I was looking for new bands and searching around on last.fm and YouTube. I also think it was around the time I found out about Vola and the Oriental Machine, but I’m not sure, it was a while ago.

Anyway, The Telephones are really, really good. They have a great unique sound and their music videos are awesome. So please, continue on and feast your eyes!

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwwucy5gxOY&feature=related']

After playing their first show together in January of 2005, The Telephones began to ring with resounding potential. The electronic rock quartet released their first demo in July of the same year and established their official line up not too long after that. With their roster set, The Telephones released their second demo in February of 2006 and followed things up with a short summer tour around the Kanto region of Japan.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1HtSOctne4']

The Telephones released their debut mini album, We are the Handclaps, with July Records in April of 2007 and have continued to rock the nation of Japan with their discotheque rock anthems ever since.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv0zJSbMLEI']

July 2009 saw the release of The Telephones’ first full length album, Dance Floor Monsters. The debut single from this album, Monkey Discooooooo, was in heavy rotation on MTV Japan. You can watch said video near the end of this post.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMAMMiyn1qM']

Band Information Source: last.fm

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utqODi4MDbA']

Pre-2010 Songs

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0wXXCYx-m0']

I like their latest stuff the best, but here’s a few of their older songs. Which batch do you like better? The older stuff or the newer stuff?

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph64dJTpIzI']

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwAdNyL6ZIo']

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hynRUScO67A']

Akira Ishige’s Solo Career

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feyvvNU61DA']

It would also seem that the lead vocalist has gone solo. I just discovered this a few days ago and it’s a real departure from the sound of The Telephones. What do you think? It’s much softer, relaxing, and not disco-like at all. How strange!

P.S. Already heard of the Telephones? Tell us what bands we’re missing out on over on our Twitter page.
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  • Yasawatse

    Nice post bro. Never really tuned in into some of japans music scene due to procrastination mostly. I guess i have to pick that up xD

  • Anonymous

    Awesome. I haven’t really heard any Japanese music outside of visual kei… but I probably should now :D thanks for the post

  • Guest

    Unique? They sound like The Kooks. :/ 

  • http://twitter.com/LaurenMadAgain Lauren Madigan

    I love the fact that the accordian is being rocked out in ‘kiss me love me kiss me’. m/

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OSOQPNOMYRVISULDFJIWOOA2L4 Rachel

    Thanks for introducing me to my new favorite band. :) I absolutely cannot stop listening to “Kiss me, Love Me, Kiss Me.” <3

  • ta0paipai

    @1e3d1d07e09ac536beb52c4f4134251d:disqus   Sampled a bunch of Kooks songs and I don’t see/hear it. 
    They’re incredible live- partially due to the fans’ reactions.  Never had so much fun at a concert in Japan.

  • Guest2

    yeah! yeah! yeah! love this band! 

  • John

    Moreso unique as far as Japanese music goes.

  • John

    Glad to hear it! :D

  • John

    No problem, glad you enjoyed it!

  • Perry Eubank

    Wow, Kiss me, love me, kiss me and ABCDisco are my favorites. Great stuff! Thanks.

  • http://twitter.com/Matias386 Matias Lastra

    Nice band, though I liked their older stuff better; especially the one where they do the Ed Sullivan parody!

  • John

    Haha, yeah that’s a good one. I just like the sound of their newer stuff – sounds more refined to me I guess.

  • Anonymous

    Great stuff! Another Japanese band to add to my list.
    They actually sound unique in terms of Japanese rock bands, IMHO.

  • Mats H

    sounds great! nothing will ever top ゆらゆら帝国 for me though!

  • Jade

    Great post thank you! It’s so hard to find out about Japanese bands when you aren’t fluent in the language – keep the musical discoveries coming!

  • beat. Beat. BEat. BEAt. BEAT

    Personally I love Shugo tokumaru, Ego-wrappin’, & OOIOO a little strange but interesting. If their level of fun were to be recorded in units and each unit were a finger there would be hundreds of fingers (finger mountains).